Super Mario World
Super Mario World is a platform game developed and published by Nintendo as a pack-in launch title for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It has gone on to become a tremendous critical and commercial success, becoming the best seller for the platform, with 20 million copies sold worldwide. Like in previous games in the Mario series, the plot involves Mario traversing different lands on a quest to rescue Princess Toadstool who has been kidnapped by Bowser. In Japan, Super Mario World is also known as Super Mario Bros. 4 and it was one of the launch games for the system, along with F-Zero. The game has been re-released three times, first as part of a combo with Super Mario All-Stars on the SNES in 1994. Secondly, it was released on the Game Boy Advance with modified gameplay, as the second part of the Super Mario Advance series. The third re-release was for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America in 2007; there were no changes from the original SNES version. ---- Super Mario World is a side-scrolling platformer. The game consists of seven main worlds and two secret worlds. Super Mario World contains an overworld, which provides a passive overview of all the game's levels. Each of the game's 72 levels is accessed individually from the world map. Most levels have one exit, though some have a second exit which is usually hidden. In total the game has 96 exits. Mario is capable of a variety of new moves, including a "spin jump". Mario can pick up and throw items, but is now also able to throw them upwards or set them down gently. In addition to the classic Fire Flower ability to project fireballs, the Cape Feather, based on Super Mario Bros. 3's Super Leaf, allows Mario to fly with a cape. He can also use the cape to glide down slowly, travel long distances while airborne and attack enemies. Conveniently, Mario can receive cape power-ups even when he is regular Mario, eliminating the need to "power-up" to Super Mario first. Mario can also spin jump in this game allowing him to ricochet off hazardous surfaces, break through blocks, and destroy enemies he normally could not; a caped spin jump will cause the cape to hit enemies adjacent to Mario, while a fire spin jump will launch one fireball each to Mario's left and right. The player has the ability to scroll the screen to the left or right by pressing the respective shoulder buttons, except in levels that scroll automatically. ---- Super Mario World introduced Yoshi, a dinosaur companion that Mario can ride. The Yoshis appear in four different colors (green, yellow, red, and blue), each with a unique ability. There are also Baby Yoshis in the Star World levels which can be picked up by Mario. After eating five enemies, five coins, or any power-up, a baby Yoshi will become a fully grown Yoshi. Super Mario World contains several new types of blocks, one of which is the yellow block, which spins on its horizontal axis when hit, rendering it temporarily passable, then reverts to its solid state after a few seconds. (To destroy these blocks permanently, Mario must get a Super Mushroom and then spin jump on top of them. There are also blocks which Mario can pick up and throw, but disappear after a few seconds. New red triangular blocks grant Mario the ability to walk on vertical surfaces such as walls or pipes, or can be used as a trampoline when riding on Yoshi. Enemies hit by fireballs from Fire Mario will turn into coins which can be collected, rather than getting knocked off the screen. For the first time Bowser does not breathe fire in the game, and uses a machine to attack Mario. When the player has gained a power-up, additional power-ups are stored in reserve. The player can use this stored item at any time, and it will automatically deploy when Mario loses all power-ups. Super Mario World was the first Mario game to provide the option of exiting a level without losing a life or completing it. This capability is only activated after the player has finished the level at least once. When replaying a level, players can exit to the map screen by pressing the START button to pause the game, then pressing SELECT. It was also the first Mario game to use a visible halfway point marker in levels; if the player is able to activate the marker, and dies or exits the level before reaching the end, they will arrive at the marker's location when re-entering the level. The marker will stay "set" even if the player does not immediately re-enter the level, and will not be reset until that level is completed. The marker will act as a power up, turning Regular Mario into Super Mario (if Mario is small when he crosses the line). ---- The secret exits in some levels lead to one of five portals to Star Road, an otherwise secret realm. Each portal gives the player access to a level in the Star World, though only one portal is needed to gain access and beat all the Star World levels. However, if all portals have been found it makes for quick travel between distant parts of the game world. Each level in Star World has two exits. The normal exit simply counts toward the total number of exits found; to properly complete it, however, the player must find the key and the keyhole (i.e. the secret exit) in each level to complete the circuit around the Star World and advance to Special Zone by finding the secret exit in Star World 5. In the Special World, there are eight additional levels which are often said to be of particular difficulty. Some have unique characteristics not seen in any other part of the game. In the American translation, the levels are named with expressions from surfer slang (in the following order: Gnarly, Tubular, Way Cool, Awesome, Groovy, Mondo, Outrageous and Funky) whereas the Japanese version has other names describing the approximate difficulty of the courses (each two levels would refer to itself as the same course). Save points are provided after every other level. Completing the Special World results in a drastic change in graphics on whichever file the levels were completed. Piranha Plants become pumpkins, Koopa Troopas now wear Mario masks and their colors have been switched so purple and yellow shells are now more common, and Bullet Bills become Pidgits. The world map takes on a different color scheme, using more of an Autumn palette. However, the levels themselves do not change color. In the Game Boy Advance port, however, this change does not take effect until all 96 exits are found. In the English SNES version, the redone enemies have new names, but in the Japanese version and Super Mario Advance 2, the enemies share the same name since they are basically the same enemy. In Super Mario Advance 2, two additional enemies receive a face-lift: Pokey and Goomba (the latter of which is thought to have been considered for it in the SNES version since it has two identical copies in the game data, one of which is used after Dinosaur Land changes) ---- Category:SNES games Category:Nintendo games Category:Mario games Category:2007 video games